Pain Mattered
by trainlindz
Summary: They decided that it really didn’t matter; because all that mattered was that they each felt relief in the end.


**Author's Note:** _Written on Livejournal for **duck_or_rabbit** for the drabble meme with the prompts of Jasper/Edward and 'pain relief'. It isn't super slashy. Or probably very slashy at all. It's all ~subtext. But this is what I came up with, so there._

* * *

Between the mind reading and the empathy neither of them was ever sure who started it first. They decided that it really didn't matter; because all that mattered was that they each felt relief in the end.

Their moments together came quickly and left even faster and they could go for years before one popped up between them. Their bodies would face each other, each with their head resting against the others shoulder, while their hands clasped together lightly at their sides. For hours they would stand like this, frozen in their half dance position, oblivious to whatever else was going on around them. Curing themselves of the broken bits within.

The first time that it had happened, they were still for two days. Jasper had slipped – four teenagers killed in a 1952 Ford by what was assumed by authorities to have been a rabid bear – and while the rest of the family prepared to leave for a new home they stood there. Edward had always wondered at the effect that Jasper had over people when he didn't even mean to. The emotions could bubble over and out of him and both the positive and negative drew Edward in, either to revel with or to comfort away. Now, Edward was being drawn to his confused thoughts – scattered, disjointed and rather reminded Edward of the mind of a schizophrenic, with the thoughts of his true self being interrupted by ones that didn't belong. His thoughts were muddled but he emotionally projected loud. Jasper hurt. Edward had edged closely towards Jasper and gasped as their skin touched, as the volume of the pain screamed through his fingers and arms, as the pain entered into him. He tried to jerk his hand away, but to his surprise Jasper held strong, red eyes looking desperate.

"Wait."

Edward held his position and waited, eyes on his fallen brother, and the pain in his hands began to lessen. From a burning hot, to a dull throb, and it was gone. Jasper's head lowered, and rested itself upon Edward's shoulder, and Edward mirrored the motion. Seconds, minutes and hours passed and bit-by-bit the tension and strain left, leaving behind a more collected man. The family was curious, but as Jasper calmed, they did as well. Carlisle asked quietly Alice what she thought they were doing, and she shook her head, not knowing the answer exactly, "They are what the other needs." They too decided that whatever they were doing didn't matter, because it worked.

And then it was done. Neither was sure how they both knew, but as one they straightened and released each other.

"Thank you." Jasper whispered.

"I'm not quite sure what I did."

"But it helped."

Months later, it was the other way around. Directed by Alice, Jasper found Edward in a snow bank outside the cabin. Angry. Furious. Enraged. He had missed the explosion but the debris remained, Edward spat words in Jasper's direction, cursing the fate and actions and past sins of them and others of their kind. Without knowing why, he found himself repeating Edward's actions of before. Their hands joined, and Edward's head fell to Jasper's shoulder, and Jasper did the best thing he could think of and slowly began to absorb Edward's fury and filter it out, soothing them both. Edward shuddered, and relaxed into the act, anger gone. Jasper could hear Alice and Carlisle talking quietly, watching from the porch of the cabin at the display of the two men.

"I don't understand this connection, Alice."

"They are two sides to the same coin. The mental and emotional. They are more complete together than apart. Together, things are balanced and right. Separate them and chaos can ensue." She smiled "Jasper and Emmett are brothers but Jasper and Edward are blood."

It continues on. The pain and suffering. The joining as one. The peace and tranquility. Words were unneeded; it simply would just happen. Pulled like magnets until the polarity is reversed and then they part. Soothing the other like a balm.

They were wrong. It did matter, because the pain was gone.


End file.
